An image forming apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-205558 as a prior art.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-205558, for example, image data is managed by a server. When an image corresponding to image data is printed on a printing paper sheet by an image forming apparatus, a printout is generated by printing a barcode representing the management location of the image data on only the first printing paper sheet. When the printout is to be copied some time later using the scanner function and the printer function of the image forming apparatus, the barcode portion of the printout is read by the scanner function. Original data (image data) corresponding to the printout, which is specified by the read barcode, is acquired from the server and printed by using the printer function.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-205558, however, the above-described specific function itself can be used in only the image forming apparatus having this specific function. For this reason, utilization may concentrate on the image forming apparatus with this function. Alternatively, if this specific function is necessary, a new image forming apparatus having this function must be prepared.
In addition, when original data is read out and printed, and then, the user wants to print the same data, the procedures including scan, search, and print must be repeated, resulting in low operation efficiency.